Japanese take a gamble on pachinko game

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It is the only readily accessible form of gambling in a country where casinos are bannedIssei Kato/Reuters

Richard Lloyd ParryTokyo

Published at 12:01AM, September 1 2014

There is a rattling of ball bearings and a continuous chorus of electronic beeps and chimes; a strip-lit interior and the hypnotic flicker of flashing lights and glowing screens. Seated in front of them are several rows of human figures, most of them male, many of them wearing the dark suit of the Japanese salaryman. Their eyes are glazed and, apart from the tapping of cigarettes, the figures are motionless; oblivious to the world around them, like men in a trance.

This is pachinko, the uniquely Japanese arcade game which has become, in its way, as important a part of